The Black Cat

Edger Allan Poe

What person is the story written in?

Whose voice are we listening to?

Pg 1 Par1 The narrator establishes two things. What are they?

Par2 1. ‘was noted for’ means...?

2. He suggests he was teased about his character. Why was this the case?

3. What evidence is there that the writer was an amicable person?

Par3 Foregrounding is using here. What is written that suggests future events?

Par5 What language is used to describe the narrator’s use of alcohol?

Pg 2 Par1

1. What effect did this have on his personality? He learned to drink make his personality became

worse.

2. What is the result of this change in personality? The result of this change in personality are he

became more moody (selfish), more irritable (annoying), more regardless of the feelings of

others (doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings), and he started to use intemperate language to his

wife and offered her personal violence. Ignore the animals and treated them badly.

Par2 Why is the last sentence in present tense? Because it was his feeling while he cut one of the

black cat’s eyes from the socket.

Par3

1. How do we know the writer felt little remorse for his actions?

For the crime of which he had been guilty, therefore we know he felt little remorse.

2. What did he do to avoid remorse?

He let himself plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine to avoid remorse.

Par4

1. How did the relationship change between the narrator and the cat? The relationship between

the narrator and the cat from so loved to dislike (fled in extreme terror at his approach).

2. What words are used to describe the writer’s feeling about this? Grieved, irritation.

3. What does perverseness mean? Deliberate to do the thing that he already knows that is wrong

4. What is the writer’s belief about perverseness? He believes that everyone sometimes although

knowing the action is illegal, people still ignore the consequences that they already know, and

have the evil thought of desperately defy the law.

5. How does he justify this belief? Make himself as an example to justify this belief.

6. Why did he hang the cat? Because the cat obviously hate him and that makes him anger, he

hang the cat.

Pg 3 Par1 1.The man has a servant. What does this suggest about his social standing?

2. What beliefs/values would you imagine this part of society to hold?

3. Why does he say “I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and

effect, between the disaster and the atrocity?”

4. What is significant about the fact that the wall which remains after the fore is here the head of

his bed rested?

5. The end of paragraph three is a point of tension. Why?

Par2 How does the writer make logic of it?

Par3 He mentions ‘vile haunts’. What are these places and why are they vile?

Would they be vile today?

Par5 When he sees the next cat the author foregrounds the idea of ‘the superstitious’. What to

factors establish this?

Pg4 Par2 The writer starts to loathe the cat. What stops him form killing it?

Par4 What increases his hatred for it?

Par5 The narrator moves from feeling loathing to dread. Why?

Par6 What is occurring in this passage? Support your ideas with evidence.

Pg5 Par1 Does his conscience/soul respond? How do we know this?

Par2 He kills his wife. What does his lack of remorse indicate about the state of his soul/mind?

Par3 What options does he consider when trying to conceal the body?

Pg6 Par1 What is the writer’s main concern?

Par3 What indication is there that he feels no remorse

Par5 1. “the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me..” What does this suggest about the cat?

Other questions to consider:

1. What do you think is the narrator’s mental state? Is he mad or not? Give reasons.

2. What are the external agents/forces in this story?

3. What is Poe’s purpose in writing the story?

4. What is the effect on the reader?

Read the Salem Witch Trials.

What connections can you make between the information here and the story?

Read Poe’s Biography.

What aspects of Poe’s life have connection with ‘The Black Cat’?